Author - The Durango Herald

Low cost, good for you food – what can it include?

If memory serves, the last big surge in food costs was around the pandemic. Some indications suggest the potential for another food price increase, especially for produce. How unfortunate; i...

DATE: Apr 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Choose to feed your mind with positive body image

If you’re expecting a lecture on the importance of eating fruits and vegetables for National Nutrition Month, you’re in for a surprise! It’s true, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals (anti...

DATE: Mar 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Say goodbye to one artificial food dye – here’s why

Color signaling has long provided us with visual clues about what to eat and what not to eat. Food dressed in fuzzy black and blue mold? No, thank you. Red meat fading to dull brown? Merely ...

DATE: Feb 6, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

The holidays are out, but the bills are in: Tips to help you save money

The holidays have ended, but one final gift remains. With perfect folds, this package is wrapped in paper as white as the snow blanketing the beautiful San Juan Mountains. You almost hate to...

DATE: Jan 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Creative solutions for battling holiday stress

Happy holidays! These two words, or comparable phrases for seasonal well-wishes, adorn emails, decorations, shop windows, news columns and blogs. The expression is a gentle reminder to carve...

DATE: Dec 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

In conversation, instead of arguing, try ‘I hear you’

Here we are, already into November. Not just any November, but an election year November. As if conversations with family during the holidays need any more fuel for the fire! How quickly a j...

DATE: Nov 6, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Micro and nano plastics, an invisible ingredient in our food and beverages

Love it or hate it, almost everyone uses plastic in one way or another. This cheap, durable synthetic polymer is the (almost) perfect material for making water bottles, containers, cutting b...

DATE: Oct 9, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

If you must justify making dessert ...

If there’s ever a time to justify dessert, it’s now. No need to conjure up justifications on your own. This month, I’m treating you to a handful of high-quality retorts for the dessert naysa...

DATE: Sep 6, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Being an entrepreneur is risky and rewarding business

It’s that time of year. Pop-up lemonade stands hosted by enthusiastic children dwindle with the start of school. Cottage Foods producers, artists and farmers continue to fill booths at summe...

DATE: Aug 8, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Small rewards push us to the top, big rewards keep us climbing

Not a cloud in the sky. The mountain air delivered a gentle, but cool breeze to counter the midsummer heat enveloping everything and everyone at lower elevations. You couldn’t ask for a bett...

DATE: Jul 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Routines enhance well-being, including routine fun

We’ve slipped into the first week of June and school’s officially out for summer. Sleepovers, lazy mornings, lemonade stands and a summer tan are all that matter now. For a moment, I ride th...

DATE: Jun 5, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Date marking on food is misleading, but the nose knows

There comes a time in every kitchen when you’re faced with the question, “Does this smell bad?” Without hesitation, I feel my yuck face take shape and a strange combination of dread and curi...

DATE: Apr 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office